The 1930s saw composers in Berlin beginning to use the saxophone as a classical instrument ¬– the alto sax paired with the piano being a...

The 1930s saw composers in Berlin beginning to use the saxophone as a classical instrument ¬– the alto sax paired with the piano being a particular favorite. But alas, the heyday of the classical saxophone in Germany was all too short. The Nazis’ cultural policy was the kiss of death for this pariah instrument. Yet a good number of works for the concert saxophone still emerged in the face of this restrictive environment. Some appeared in Berlin, others were created in the exile that many composers had to choose after 1933. Only a handful of works for alto sax and piano were written in Germany after the war, and it wasn’t until the 1980s that this format finally enjoyed a rebirth. The four-part series “Music for Saxophone from Berlin / Music for Saxophone from Germany” offers a selection of works for this distinctive liaison of instruments – from pre-war Berlin, post-war Germany, and again from Berlin’s flourishing musical life at the turn of the millennium. Most of these are world-premier recordings. After repression, war, and finally the division of the country had hit the metropolis, performers and composers in Berlin only started returning to the classical saxophone in the 1980s. The fourth part in the series is dedicated to compositions for the alto sax and piano that were written in Berlin between 1982 and 2004. Several phases of radical musical transformation after World War II had a fruitful impact on this combination of instruments, leading to the exploration of new compositional techniques and the creation of fascinating and unheard-of sound worlds.